The many careers of CD Deshmukh
An overview of Deshmukh's careers as civil servant, central banker, finance minister, institution builder, and economic statesman.
Deshmukh’s gardens
A few years back, I wrote an article (see here) on Deshmukh’s education in Botany, which made him a phytophile or botanophile with a lifelong interest in gardening and horticulture. Against that background, I drew his official and personal life.
Churchgate
I started that article by referring to how, walking down from Churchgate through the road on the western side of the Eros theatre, the third roundabout is named after CD Deshmukh, its significance, and its current sorry state. About two years back, there was news of the Churchgate station being named after CD Deshmukh. But I think the old name continues to date.
Online encyclopaedia
Perhaps thanks to the above article, I was approached to write a piece on CD Deshmukh for an online encyclopaedia devoted to Indian economists. The first set of entries covering more than twenty economists or economic policymakers is now online (see here).
The long version
The original draft of my write-up on Deshmukh for the online encyclopaedia was about 10k words. The published version is around 2k words. Some of you might be interested in the more extended version, which has been substantially edited further. This is based on further research. In particular, I have added excerpts from his lengthy speech announcing and explaining his resignation as Finance Minister. Please see the link below.
The unknown Deshmukh
While researching Deshmukh, I discovered and rediscovered certain unknown facets of the person. As my father used to advise, driving home the importance of writing, the more you write, the more you realise how ignorant you are. Thus, in a sense, I am still learning more about Deshmukh. I will post two of these aspects separately, as they did not fit into the long narrative on Deshmukh.
Central banker for several countries
The first relates to Deshmukh’s role as central banker in India, Pakistan, and several other countries, including the Trucial States (now UAE), Bahrain, Kuwait, and the Sultanate of Oman. Deshmukh took these multiple responsibilities seriously. In particular, the alacrity with which he ensured the transition to a new central banking arrangement for Pakistan is noteworthy. My article covering this aspect, especially his mentoring of a young Muslim academic, appeared in today’s Financial Express (see here). I will post a more extended version soon.
Khushwant Singh’s review
Second, I chanced upon a rather vituperative review of Deshmukh’s autobiography (Deshmukh claimed it was not one), The Course of My Life (Orient Longman, 1974), by Khushwant Singh. It appeared in The Illustrated Weekly of India, where he was the editor. In other words, he set the editorial standards and sat in judgement on whether his articles met those standards.
Apart from extending unsolicited advice on how to write an autobiography, Singh belittles Deshmukh’s many achievements, ignores those he cannot caricature, and attributes motives to Deshmukh’s genuine positions on several issues. When many readers drew Deshmukh’s attention to the review, he laughed it off, stating that such reviews were necessary to increase his book’s sales.
While granting that Deshmukh’s writing and positions are not above reproof, Khushwant’s review was, in my view, a hatchet job - highly motivated and intended to please some people. He wrote in his autobiography that the main objective of his journalistic writing was to inform, amuse, and provoke, in that order. In the review, he falls short on all three counts. I hope to “bare all” in a future post, with attendant caveats and user discretion warnings that a post on Khushwant Singh warrants even when sobered by the august presence of a CD Deshmukh.
Apology
Finally, apologies are due to my old friend, M Rajeshwar Rao, now Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India. Visiting me recently, he complained over dinner that I was writing repeatedly only on a select few Governors of the Reserve Bank. Perhaps I should cover others, too. I agreed. But here I am, posting another long one on Deshmukh, and another two are in the pipeline.
Sir James Taylor
Through an earlier post in October 2023 (see here), I requested that the Reserve Bank of India do something substantial to perpetuate the memory of its second Governor, Sir James B. Taylor. A few ways were suggested. I added that since Taylor has no descendants, the Bank should make perpetual arrangements to tend to his grave in the Sewri Christian cemetery.
As for the first, I suggest that the Reserve Bank House, the Governor’s residence in Mumbai, be renamed after Taylor, the first Governor to stay there. As for other reasons, he was associated with central banking functions for about two decades from his days as Deputy Controller of Currency. Moreover, unlike popular imagination and as repeated by various authors, Taylor anticipated India’s independence from the late 1920s (as did many others) and worked with India’s best interests in mind, even when they conflicted with his country's interests. He is not the villain that most people make him out to be in the context of his role in the spat between the Finance Member, Sir James Grigg, and Sir Osborne Smith, the first Governor.
It often helps to have a precedent in matters such as repairing and rebuilding Taylor’s grave to something befitting his stature. I do not know whether Syud Hossain's name rings a bell. I mentioned him in an earlier post (see here). Working as the editor of The Independent, which Motilal Nehru founded, and staying with the family in the spacious Anand Bhavan with its sylvan surroundings, Hossain fell in love with the young Sarup Kumari, Motilal’s daughter. They eloped and got married without the knowledge of either of their families.
After much cajoling and coaxing from different quarters, including Mohandas Gandhi at whose Sabarmati Ashram, Sarup Kumari spent a difficult few weeks, pressure was built on Syud Hossain to annul the marriage. After the annulment, Swarup Kumari changed her name to Vijaya Lakshmi. Was the name change required because it had already been changed after her first marriage to Hossain? Her biographer, Manu Bhagwan, does not say. He mainly refers to her as Nan in the initial chapters. On marrying Ranjit Pandit, Nan became Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit.
Syud Hossain never remarried. He was sent to the United States and elsewhere to advance the cause of Indian independence. After Independence, he became India’s first Ambassador to Egypt. Nehru visited Egypt when he was there. Hossain died in Egypt and was buried at the Al-Arafa in Cairo, also known as the City of the Dead. The Government of India tends to Hossain’s grave at its expense.
Link
The link to the extended write-up on Deshmukh is below: